Wednesday, 12 September 2012

Wye Experience

Day One.

After meeting Jake
and Kevin at the farmhouse we finally arrived at the river around
9.30am. No other anglers were around and with the same two anglers
booked in for two days it seemed only fare that we place young Jake
in the banker swim. The sun was hot and my thoughts were that it
would be tough, yet after setting Jake up l filled the feeder with
some Sonubaits Hemp & Hali Crush, placed two 8mm Pellet ‘O’
on the hair and cast to where the river keeper had told me two.
Paying out a few yards of line l was amazed, as were Jake and Kevin,
when a few taps signalled a bite. I hadn’t even had time to put the
rod in the rest and the first fish of the week dropped into the net,
a chub around three-pound.

After helping Jake
land a couple of barbel, Kevin and l headed to the top of the beat,
an area of relative unknown, yet not far from a famous angling
landmark, the old railway bridge supports that sat out in the river.
With Kevin settled l headed back to see how Jake was getting on and
with a couple more chub and barbel landed he seemed in his element,
yet he seemed to have lost far more than he had landed, due to cut
offs and snags. The river-keeper confirmed that the swim was snaggy,
yet after a few hours Jake had located where these were and was
starting to know the swim and land a high percentage of his fish.
Spending an hour with each customer, l was soon back sitting with
Kevin and as l watched his rod bent over and he was into a barbel,
yet the fight lasted just a couple of seconds before the hooklink
parted. An hour past without any more signs, so Kevin moved into a
lovely looking swim whilst l headed back to see Jake. He was still
catching, however the fish had become somewhat cagey and thinking
they had backed of l asked if l could make a longer cast downstream.
Jake was using my tackle which made the somewhat tricky cast easier
for me and the Korum Neoteric XS 12ft Multi-Quiver Power easily
launched the 3oz feeder into position. Placing the rod in the rest l
counted six seconds before the tip started bouncing and Jake was back
in. The next cast took ten seconds!

Unfortunately the
phone signal isn’t very good on the river and Kevin was unable to
get in touch to say he had just landed a barbel weighing 7lb 12oz
along with a few chub. Happy to keep on the move, Kevin continued to
try new swims and although no more barbel came to his rod, the odd
chub kept his interest. Jake was exhausted come the end of the day
and had managed to bank a total of eleven barbel, the best 7lb 2oz
along with eight good chub.

Although the day
was a great result, l was concerned with the amount of fish being
lost. Braided hooklinks in a snaggy swim isn’t very swim-friendly,
as if the angler has to pull for a break, the line could go anywhere,
leaving at most, around thirty yards of line in the swim. Pre-stretch
mono was what we had started on, yet on occasions it was as if
someone was cutting the line with a pair of sharp scissors, so this
wasn’t very fish friendly, especially taking into consideration we
were using micro-barbed hooks. To say l went to bed with the brain
ticking over is an understatement, yet l found the solution the very
next day.